Darkness Drowning
by GhostHelwig
Summary: Akito gives in to his jealous rage... Rated M for character death, yaoi (slash), rape, violence, language, and just general dark themes. Also contains spoilers.


Disclaimer – I do not own or profit from Fruits Basket. Rated R for character death, yaoi, rape, violence, language, and just general dark themes. A one-shot.

Author's Notes – I've seen the four DVDs, and read the first three manga, but I've also read many different fan fiction stories and surfed through many a Fruits Basket website, so there are references to all kinds of things from even stuff I've yet to see myself in this story. So, SPOILERS be ahead. Consider yourself warned.

Also, a girl in this story, Rin, who wasn't on the anime but is in the manga (though I've yet to read one with her in it), is in this story. I've read her background, and though normally I would never include someone I don't really know in a story I had to include her, because this is based on a dream I had, and she was in it. In fact, there weren't nearly as many changes from my dream as I'd prefer for my own piece of mind... So prepare to learn why I don't like to sleep. ('lol')

Dedicated to the two lovely people who introduced me to this world just a few short weeks ago, darthelwig and Mysticlynx. I love you both, and I hope you like what I've written.

Anyway, enjoy. Peace, all.

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Darkness Drowning

by Ghost Helwig

-------

Yuki was kneeling, his burning forehead pressed up against the cool iron bars. In the cage closest to his, he could hear Kyo swearing, in every language he knew and some Yuki was sure he was making up. Beyond him, Haru was laid out, still unconscious, while in the cage beside him Rin was curled up in a tight ball. Yuki didn't know where the others had been taken, where Momiji and Kagura and Hiro and poor little Kisa were, and part of him didn't want to know. The knowledge would just be too painful.

Kyo finally stopped swearing, and Yuki began rummaging around in the shadows at the corner of his cell. Seeing what he was doing, Kyo snapped, "don't bother. There's nothing there." Ignoring him, Yuki kept fumbling around, finally withdrawing a flashlight from the heavy darkness and turning it on. Kyo stared in stupefied amazement, until knowledge finally socked him in the gut. Quietly he asked, "did you... did you sleep here last night?"

Yuki nodded, his aching head protesting the movement. Leaning his forehead once more against the cool iron, he whispered, "I had... nowhere else to go."

At that, the cat said nothing. And Yuki was grateful for the abrupt plunge into silence. The irony of his situation was glaring at him, hurting him, violating him. He had slept in this very cage the night before, feeling it to be the safest place in the main house, yet now here he was, stuck in it. The thought that Akito had known this was where he'd been and had put him back here for that very reason crossed his mind, but he decided not to think about it much.

As with everything else that had happened recently, it was best to just not think about any of it.

He knew the instant Haru woke up, because it was Black Haru who greeted the world by swearing and yelling out insults to their captors, who undoubtedly couldn't hear a word he said. But his fellow captives could, and while Rin begged him to calm down and Kyo further angered him by yelling at him to shut up, Yuki sat back and wondered why Haru had woken up angry. Perhaps he hadn't been captured unawares then, perhaps he'd gotten in a few punches and kicks, or at least known what was going on before he'd been knocked out. That might even explain why it had taken him so much longer to awaken...

But the rest of them had been caught with insulting ease, or so they'd discovered when they shared their stories. Kyo was given a drugged drink by a (equally unaware, Yuki fervently hoped) Shigure, while Rin had been brought down here in her sleep. And Yuki himself was the most mortified of them all, as the last thing he remembered was sharing a relaxing cup of tea with Hatori when someone managed to slip past his guard and cover his nose and mouth with a foul-smelling cloth...

He knew he'd been drugged, he even knew the name of the drug – chloroform. But who would do that in front of Hatori, who could get past his defenses, and why would Hatori allow it? Why would he just sit there, sipping his drink, as Yuki struggled and pleaded with his eyes to be saved?

Yuki shut his eyes, his heavy, aching head still resting on the bars, and tried his hardest not to cry. Betrayed. They'd been betrayed...

And only he knew, because he'd only muttered something vaguely coherent about tea when he'd been asked how he'd come to be there. There was no point in letting the others know how truly hopeless their situation was.

But he knew.

-------

Yuki crawled to the corner of his cage, the only corner that was aligned with anyone else's. His cell was along one wall, the others' all lined up side by side on another, so that the only cage his touched was Kyo's. He could see the others, though, see Rin's bent dark head and Haru's shaking white one. And so close to him, so close, there was Kyo's, red as blood in the darkness surrounding him. Yuki shook his head to clear it of that disturbing thought. Now was not the time to see blood everywhere-

Not when he was so sure he'd be seeing the real thing later.

Kyo frowned at him, and Yuki snapped back to the present. He knew he'd been staring, but all he did was curl up, turning his back to Kyo and the others. He could hear the furious cat hissing insults at his back, hear Haru getting turned black all over again as he defended him from Kyo's snide remarks, but their voices sounded so far away. He felt like he was floating, like he wasn't really there, and only distantly did he wonder why Kyo and Haru were wasting their time with petty arguments. They should be looking for a way out, not fighting amongst themselves...

But he didn't have the heart to stop them. What was the point? Why have the heart when he didn't have the hope?

A door banged above them, jarring Yuki from his despair and returning him to his miserable body. As footsteps pounded heavily down the stairs Haru and Kyo fell silent, all four teenagers standing up and moving closer to the front of their cages. Only Yuki didn't think, even for a moment, that perhaps now they'd be set free. He knew better.

Two tall, muscular men entered the room, one carrying with him a set of chains that ended in cuffs. They looked familiar to Yuki, these men, but he couldn't remember why...

One, the one not carrying chains, stepped over to his cell, and he remembered. Sohmas, of course, men he'd seen at every New Year's celebration, though he could not recall their names.

When the other man moved to Rin's cage, Yuki heard himself unwisely calling out, "wait! Please! Let me speak!"

The man in front of him laughed, and to his surprise reached between the bars of his cage and grabbed his arm. Before he could even begin to struggle a hearty tug had gotten his slender arm through the bars, and rough hands were pulling up his torn, dirty sleeve, exposing the vulnerable crook of his elbow. Knowing now what was coming, Yuki waited, letting his arm be injected with some unknown fluid, while Kyo and Haru screamed things he could neither hear nor understand in the background. Akito wouldn't want him dead, not yet, he was sure of that, and whatever happened before that didn't matter. He had a feeling that he would be allowed to speak after this, and that was what he wanted. All he wanted.

Sure enough, as heaviness settled all along his limbs his cell door was flung open, and he was abruptly free. He was too tired to run, too weak to fight, but he was free. It was meant to make a mockery of him, and he knew it. But he relished it, anyway.

As the other man pulled a struggling Rin from her cell and clasped the chains about her wrists, Yuki remembered what he was supposed to do. Falling to his knees both from exhaustion and as supplication, he didn't even have to bother steeling himself to say what he had to say-

And that scared him most of all.

"Let her go," he pleaded, not feeling the three sets of horrified eyes that bore into him. "Lie to him, tell him you beat her. Or beat me instead! I'll let you, I'll let you do whatever you want, just let her go!"

He heard Rin's strident cry of "Yuki, _no_!" but, once started, he could not stop.

"Leave her _alone_," he begged, unsurprised to feel himself near tears once again. He moved forward, still on his knees, and clung to the hem of the nearest man's shirt. "She has done _nothing_, nothing at all! It's me Akito really wants to suffer! So _please_, I'm begging you – let her go! Don't hurt her! Don't let him – don't let him _hurt_ her – because of _me_." Tears overwhelmed him, swallowed his voice. Within moments, the only sound was his quiet sobbing.

But then the man he clung to moved, freeing his shirt from desperate hands with a disdainful shove of Yuki's weak shoulder. As Yuki looked up at him from his place on the floor, the man smiled, brushing long dark hair from his eyes before he removed something small and dark gray from his pocket.

A deep, gloating voice rang throughout the dungeon, hurting Yuki's ears with its obvious pleasure.

"Akito said you would beg."

He held that strange object in his hand up to the dim light shining through the small slit of a window at the top of the room. Yuki stared at it, feeling a forlorn sob and a startled laugh intertwine and catch in the back of his throat.

It was a small tape recorder.

At the two men dragged the still struggling Rin from the room, Yuki crawled on his hands and knees back towards his cell. He heard Kyo speak, heard him say something about how Yuki was not acting like himself, and Yuki turned his face blindly towards Kyo's voice to spit out, "Fuck you." There was no real venom in the words, but he had to say them, because he was irritated – and to prove to himself that he still could.

He reached his cage and collapsed into the closest corner, pulling his knees up to his chest. When the door upstairs had banged shut, all was quiet – until Kyo spoke again, his voice unusually soft and compassionate.

"I hear your voice though I cannot hear your name."

Yuki thought about that, and when he understood he had to close his eyes. So Kyo still knew him even though he'd changed? That thought was... strangely comforting.

A few tears slipped down his pale cheeks, though he no longer felt the need to cry.

-------

Akito sat up in bed as the body was carried from the room, and when he spoke it was as dark as midnight. "Take her downstairs." He smiled, though it looked like anything but. "I want Yuki to see what he's done."

-------

Haru couldn't look, instead drawing his thin body up into a corner and hiding his face in the uncaring wall. Kyo took one small glance, and disgraced himself on the floor of his cage while the two burly men pointed and laughed.

But Yuki stared. And he learned just what Akito had wanted him to.

To love him was a very dangerous thing indeed.

-------

With heavy steps Tohru walked along the forest path, wishing this week was over. Yuki, Kyo and Shigure had only been at the main house for a couple of days, and already she was lonely.

But that was selfish of her, and she knew it. She chided herself for her selfishness, even as her heart bleed for missing them. It was so cold, without the loud, lively presence of three of the most important people in her life...

"But they need to spend time with their families," she muttered aloud to herself. "It's wrong of me to want them here all the time..."

She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't see the limo pull up behind her, didn't notice anything amiss until she heard Akito's voice over her shoulder.

"Well, Miss Honda," came the mocking purr, "we meet again."

Something in her froze at his tone, at the way he used the name Yuki used for her. She could practically feel his breath on the back of her neck, and it chilled her to the bone. She turned around very slowly, and Akito smiled at her.

And she suddenly knew.

His long-fingered hands wrapped around her neck, but even as the breath was forced from her body there was something she knew she had to say. Her fingers scrabbled at his, trying to find purchase, to free her struggling lungs even though she knew it was hopeless. Only near the end, right before the darkness took her, was she able to gasp out the words she needed to say.

"I... forgive you."

-------

Another day. Yuki could feel it. They'd slept, on and off, all of them, but now he could feel that it was a new morning-

And that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

Kyo's hand found its way through the bars. Yuki stared at it, then took it in his, bestowing a soft kiss on the tip of each finger. Finally he threaded their fingers together, pressing their palms against each other.

He wished he could do the same for Haru, but Haru was still facing the wall, blind to all but his own pain. Kyo gave his hand a gentle, reassuring squeeze, and Yuki realized – Kyo must feel it, too.

But neither of them spoke about it, or about anything. Instead, they just waited, listening to the sound of the oppressive silence.

-------

Shigure was the one to find her body.

He saw her hair first, spread on the autumn ground like a blanket of dark silk, and he ran towards her, fear deep in his heart. By the time he took her in his arms, she was already cold.

But he ran anyway, ran to his house so he could drive her to Hatori. And even though she was heavy and stiff, even though she obviously wasn't breathing, he spoke to her, told her to hold on, told her everything would be alright.

If Tohru had been alive, she would've thanked him.

-------

"Does it seem colder to you?" Yuki whispered, clinging tighter to Kyo's hand. Kyo didn't say a word.

But Haru looked over from his place by the wall, and spoke in a dull, dead voice that was just enough like his usual tone to feel like a perversion.

"It's colder because we're going to die here."

Neither Yuki nor Kyo contradicted him.

-------

Hatori stared at the lifeless body before him, fighting off the unfamiliar urge to cry. His voice felt too thick, but he forced it out of his constricted throat anyway, trying to give comfort where there could be none.

"She's gone, Shigure. But I – I don't think she suffered much..."

How hollow those words sounded, how wrong they felt, even to him. Shigure glared at him, thinking of everything he knew about the girl they'd all grown to love, and finally found breath enough to speak his piece.

"You're wrong. She suffered a lot."

-------

Akito stood at the top of the stairs, smirking as he stared at the scene below him. Haru, cringing. Kyo and Yuki, clinging. Well, he would change all of that to suit him, right now.

After all, inside him now were the four words that could break them all. And when he stood in front of the cages, he waited until he was staring in Yuki's violently violet eyes to say them.

"Tohru Honda is dead."

-------

Considering his conviction concerning their own fates, Haru was the only one surprised. He jerked like he'd been punched in the gut, and looked like he was going to make the same kind of mess Kyo had, remnants of which were still stinking up their confined home. But Kyo's head only lowered, his thin shoulders trembling with withheld emotion, while Yuki continued staring in Akito's eyes.

Something was growing in him, something dark and foolhardy and _pissed_. News of Tohru's death wounded him, saddened him, sickened him, but more than anything it _just made him mad_. She was a good, kind, loving, absolutely beautiful girl, the kind of girl who only existed once every million or so years, and why had she died? What had her crime been? She'd gotten involved with, charmed and saved and loved, the screwed-up members of his family. Her crime had been that she was better than them, better than Akito. And that galled him.

So he spoke, unthinkingly, and that doomed him.

"And how did she die, Akito?" he hissed. "Did you break her? Did you finally get her to see the error of her ways? Or did she defy you even in death?"

He must've hit a nerve. Akito's eyes narrowed dangerously, and for a moment Yuki was sure Akito was reconsidering letting him live. But then a wicked, unholy light lit his eyes, and he turned away with only a small smile.

He walked to Haru's cell and began to speak in that deceptively low, seductive murmur of his. Whatever he was saying was obviously displeasing to the young man, as Kyo and Yuki could tell he was holding onto his legendary temper by only a thin thread.

And then Yuki understood, but it was too late.

Akito called to some of his lackeys, had them manhandle a very peeved Black Haru into Yuki's cell. And then Yuki watched as Akito whispered through the bars, whispered words that brought a new but oh-so-familiar gleam to those slightly deranged eyes. Kyo still didn't understand what was going on, his shouted insults to Akito proved that, and Yuki spared a moment to think _stupid cat_ before Black Haru was on him.

His hand slipped from Kyo's as Black Haru tore open his shirt and started kissing him, but though Kyo tried to grab it again Yuki didn't let him. Kyo did not need to feel this. Yuki could spare him that much.

Black Haru was whispering to him, words of lust and madness, words Yuki knew Akito had planted in the willing-to-believe darkness that was Haru's mind when he was black. When he found his voice, Yuki called out, "stop! Haru, _stop_! You're going to regret this!"

His screams continued in that vein as Black Haru yanked at his pants, with Yuki still too weak to stop him, the drugs not yet gone from his system and his head throbbing with pain. And though he cried, the rage inside Haru was just too much – he would be Black for a lot longer, now that he'd finally let loose, and when he was black tears meant less than nothing; even when they were Yuki's.

And only when Black Haru was buried inside him did Yuki stop screaming. And only then did Akito choose to speak.

"He won't regret it, dear Yuki. He won't even remember it."

-------

When it was over, Haru was quickly dragged out of Yuki's cage, before the satisfaction could overcome the rage and turn him back to white. Yuki was too exhausted, too worn, to even move, though modesty dictated that he cover himself up – especially since he could feel eyes all over his skin, caressing and memorizing. He looked to the side of his cell, looked up into Kyo's eyes, and the worry he saw in the crimson depths eased his discomfort somehow. Though these eyes also touched him, they were kind, and that made all the difference.

A gentle hand brushed over the side of his face, a satin voice entered his ears, and a fear not even Black Haru's attack could've caused rose up in him. But Akito just kept touching him, running his perversely gentle hands all over him, and Yuki could only lie there and unwillingly submit.

It was over fairly quickly. And when Akito was lying on top of him, exhausted and sated, Yuki's numb ears finally picked up on the growling coming from the cage beside his. He glanced over to see Kyo shooting a fiery, deadly glare at Akito. That furious protection, though useless and dangerous, made the tense, bruising ache in his stomach ease just a little. Abruptly unaware of Akito's intense stare and naked body, Yuki smiled a ghost of a smile at Kyo, and whispered tenderly, "baka neko."

Kyo's eyes met his, connecting, sharing, understanding. And Akito could only watch, not share.

But he was, above all things, cunning. Where Tohru Honda's death and Black Haru and Akito himself had apparently failed, maybe Kyo Sohma would not.

He shoved himself off Yuki, and slammed his way out of the cage, taking a brief moment of pleasure from locking the rebellious mouse inside. This would be _delicious_.

-------

Ayame burst into Hatori's office, Ritsu at his side, both men stopping only when they saw the body laid out on his desk. Ritsu swooned, collapsing on the floor in a swirl of his skirts, but Ayame stared, repulsed and amazed. On shaky legs he stepped forward, holding out his hand, intending to brush silky hair away from that still pretty face-

"So it's true then," he whispered to himself. He drew his hand back to his chest before he could touch her, and in an unusually serious tone he asked the two silent men who'd already been occupying the room, "does my brother know?" Hatori and Shigure exchanged an uneasy glance, and Ayame's gaze narrowed. Tension invaded the already anxious energy in the room, and suddenly Ayame knew, he _knew_, what Hatori would say before he even spoke.

"Yuki is with Akito."

-------

Akito brought in help for this stage of his plan, for even though it was only the freakish cat he knew that all cats had claws, and this one's were extraordinarily sharp. So three men held a struggling Kyo for him, while Yuki only watched, mind gone numb from shock.

"This is what happens when you disobey me," Akito hissed. "I have to punish you in whatever way works best."

Yuki screamed, a denial, a plea, but he couldn't even hear his own words over the blood pounding in his ears. And Kyo just stared at him, stared like he wanted to remember this in eternity, like he wanted Yuki to be the last thing he saw.

And he was.

-------

"But _why_?" Though he'd asked this question before, the answers his two oldest friends were giving him just could not be processed. "Akito's orders..." "Never thought it would go this far..." "We had to obey..." When Hatori began explaining yet again about how Akito was the head of the family and his words were law, Ayame just... broke.

"_Bullshit_," he snarled, his voice carrying easily over the whimpering of Ritsu, who huddled on the floor, unable to stand and ignored by the others. "Since when have the three of us been bound by _rules_? What would Akito do if we all stood against him? If he had no one to carry out his orders, what power would he have?"

But Hatori just shook his head, and with that small gesture Ayame could feel all his respect and love for this gentle, unswervingly loyal (and _obedient_) man just dripping out of him. That, more than anything else, brought tears to his eyes.

But he shook them away, and knelt to help Ritsu to his feet. Keeping one arm around the shaking young man's waist, Ayame asked, "where is my brother now?"

Shigure opened his mouth, but his voice didn't seem to be working properly. It was alright, though – he could convey all he knew easily enough. He shrugged his shoulders.

Ayame didn't bother waiting to see if Hatori would answer – he knew he wouldn't. Without a backward glance he swept from the room, dragging the practically boneless Ritsu along with him.

Though the pain of it killed him, showing his loyalty to Yuki was the proudest moment of his life.

-------

Akito had them leave the corpse just outside Yuki's cell, close enough to touch. Yuki could hear Black Haru's maniacal laughter and furious swearing, but the sound came filtered through static, like a radio station that wasn't quite catching. All he could hear above it was the sound of Kyo's body hitting the floor, repeating like a broken record.

Stress was consuming him, debilitating him, and if he'd been aware he would've been amazed that it hadn't yet turned him into a rat. But even as a rat he would not have escaped this pain, or this place...

A coughing fit overwhelmed him, and he doubled over, hands reaching out and grabbing the flashlight he'd hidden in the darkest, farthest corner of his cage in order to keep it secret. He was huddling in this corner to escape Kyo's open eyes, to escape the knowledge, but as his shaking fingers accidentally flipped the light on he knew his hiding was over. The dim orange beam caught in Kyo's crimson eyes, making them sparkle like they did when he was alive, and Yuki suddenly couldn't breathe.

-------

Ayame was struggling to drag Ritsu around the huge house, annoyed by the helplessness of his only companion but unwilling to leave Ritsu here alone. If Akito had truly killed that sweet girl-

He blinked back tears. Of course Akito had killed her – thinking she'd been targeted randomly by some evil person was just too much of a coincidence, and he knew in his gut it wasn't true. So he had to find Yuki, find Yuki and run, run as he should've done years ago, the very first time Yuki had ever needed him to escape Akito...

That thought drove him on a little faster.

-------

Akito smiled as he lay back on his soft bed. This was what Yuki got for his betrayal. This was what he got for not remembering where his true loyalties would always lie...

-------

_Akito heard voices, soft but unmistakable, coming from the gardens. He never usually drifted this far from his rooms, but with Yuki somewhere in the compound he found he couldn't help it – he had to be out and about, and alone, blessedly alone..._

_But those voices – he knew them. So he peeked around a corner at the two boys, watching with heavy-lidded, jealous eyes..._

_"Not here, neko," Yuki whispered, pulling away from Kyo's arms. "There are two many people around."_

_"Damn rat," Kyo growled, only half-kidding, as he pulled Yuki back into his arms. Oblivious to the danger, he pressed his lips to Yuki's, adding out of the corner of his mouth, "who cares?"_

_Yuki pulled away again, eyes shining so dark they appeared black as he glanced fearfully around, just missing Akito as he briefly ducked his head back around the corner. "Stupid cat," Yuki muttered, "what if Akito or one of his spies sees us? Do you have any idea what will happen then? Do you?"_

_Kyo glared at him, his own eyes sparkling dangerously, his notoriously short temper lit by Yuki's words. "What is it with you?" he spat. "Are you ashamed of me, Prince? Is the filthy, freakish cat not good enough for you?"_

_"You know that isn't it," Yuki said hastily, but Kyo cut him off._

_"Isn't it? Then what's the problem? At home it's Tohru and Shigure, here it's Akito and whoever else – if you don't want me, you damn rat, that's all you had to say. Quit wasting my time."_

_Yuki was struck speechless by the vehemence in his tone, but all Kyo knew was that Yuki wasn't speaking. He let the anguished silence last for all of two seconds before he spun on his heel. "Forget you-"_

_"Kyo."_

_Just that one pleading word, said in a strained, unrecognizable voice, was enough to stop him in his tracks. Then he was spun around by needy hands, and hot, desperate lips were on his, begging for forgiveness, asking him to stay. He didn't need more of an invitation than that._

_He wrapped his arms around the warm, willing body pressed against his, kissing deeply, hungrily, and they sank to the ground, slowly losing themselves in each other._

-------

Yuki's vision was blurring, and he knew that the stress and the fever he just wasn't shaking were sending his bronchial tubes into another attack. He hated these attacks, this weakness of his, but for a reason no one suspected – he believed that if he hadn't been born sick, he and Akito would never have spent so much time together when they were younger, and then maybe Akito wouldn't have fixated on him like he had. Maybe things like this, days with blood and pain and regret, would never have happened.

The shortness of breath was worsening. Still through that static haze he heard Black Haru's laughter turn to White Haru's fear and concern, and he wished he had the breath to tell his younger cousin, _'no matter what, I still love you. And it'll be alright'._

But the first part, however true, was followed by a blatant lie, and even if he'd had the breath he would not have wanted to give voice to that.

With the last of his strength he crawled forward, blindly reaching for Kyo's hand through the bars. He grabbed it somehow, and brought it shakily to his lips for a soft kiss as he choked and gasped for air.

He was swimming, now, fighting to stay afloat in the blackness, when it finally occurred to him that he had no more reason to fight.

So Yuki let himself drown.

-------

By the time Ayame found them Haru was curled up, clutching his sides and sobbing brokenly into his knees. At first, his pain was so vivid it blocked all else from Ayame's vision, and he moved unthinkingly towards Haru's cage.

But then he heard Ritsu cry out, a forlorn, broken sound, and he turned to see.

Kyo was sprawled on the other side of the room, unmoving, unblinking. And beyond him, inside another cell, Yuki lay curled around himself. Unmoving. Unblinking.

And Ayame decided that it was time to lay waste to a god.

-------

He sent Haru and Ritsu away, to find the missing children and then to flee. He knew they'd be fine – Haru had a terrible sense of direction and Ritsu couldn't lead to save his life, but together they could make it. Together they could find the remaining members of the Zodiac and start anew.

But in order for that future to happen, the past had to be put to rest.

He snuck into the room easily, for no one, in all the years of the curse, had ever dared what he was about to. Akito was lying on his bed, a dreaming smile plastered on his face, and the very fact that he could smile after what he'd done snapped Ayame's last nerve. He straddled the thin body easily, pinning Akito and waking him in one quick move of his lithe form. Before Akito was even oriented enough to blink, Ayame covered his mouth with his hand, and leaned in as close as he could without tempting himself into biting something off.

"You and I don't know each other well," he hissed softly, sounding every bit the furious snake, "but as I understand it, you knew my brother well enough to more than make up for that." Akito's eyes glared up at him, but the fear that look had inspired in so many could not even reach Ayame through his pain.

"You've killed him," he whispered, watching as a flicker of emotion flitted through Akito's dead eyes. Did he regret? Ayame stared deeply into those eyes, as deep as he could, but in the end he let it go. It didn't matter if Akito did.

No mere tinge of regret could inspire him to mercy.

"I want you to know," he said softly, "that you took the best of us, when you took their lives. All you're left with is turncoats and psychotics-"

He leaned in even closer, until all Akito could see were his big yellow eyes.

"-and _murderers_."


End file.
